“They” say that the first step is admitting you have a problem.
I have a problem.
Actually, I have lots of them, but I’ll focus on one for today.
I have a fear of toys-with-lots-of-teeny-tiny-parts.
Like Legos.
This is a prime example of my slob-tendencies affecting my real job . . . being a mom.
I’ve successfully avoided Legos for years. My oldest son has a bit of the same fear, so it hasn’t been an issue with him. But my second son, the one who just turned 7, loves to build things. And has a math-brain. Y’know, just the type of kid Legos were created for.
The main problem is that Legos aren’t really toys. They’re boxes full of pieces.
With instruction BOOKS instead of instruction sheets.
Here’s the problem. Doing a real lego project requires a totally-cleared-off table. And it requires a block of time. In our house, if you put a few pieces together, and then take a break . . . things will get piled on that table, and pieces will get knocked off, kicked under the piano and lost forever . . . and you’ll never actually get to play with that greed-inducing toy on the front of the box.
But, alas, my son received a really cool Lego Star Wars
So, last Saturday, a full two days before he was technically old enough to do it, we put together his Star Wars Spaceship. Thankfully, we had a cleared dining room table to do it on.
And you know what? It was fun.
Once I read the instructions (I know, who does that?), I saw that they have some really good advice. They advise that you sort the pieces into piles by color so you can find the ones you need easily. Then they tell you, step by teeny-tiny-step, exactly what to do.
I don’t personally know who invented Legos, but I can say with total certainty that Mr./Ms. Lego was/is NOT a slob.
And just to sound more science-ey/math-ey and try to fit in with Lego-lovers, here’s my little equation for the day.
Cleared Table = Less Mommy Guilt.
My daughter loves playing with blocks – and just recently (Thursday, in fact) graduated to a more "grown up" Lego set. I love that she loves to play with them but really dislike the fact that Lego sells their sets in cardboard boxes. You'd think for the price paid, they would come up with more sturdy/practical packaging. Melissa and Doug have spoiled me with their wooden boxes/crates!
They are fun though aren't they!
I am a slob myself. I’ve been working my way through your blog for about a month now and I’m totally inspired. Its nice to know that I’m not the only one who gets surprised when something is dirty two weeks after I just cleaned it! Already my dishes are staying done, couches are for sitting most of the time and my bathroom isn’t masquerading as a laundry basket. One thing me and my husband both struggle with us cluttering up flat surfaces. this includes the kitchen table so we usually eat in front of TV instead of decluttering the table. My amazing husband found me a table that all but abouta foot of it folds down to fit better in our small kitchen. The added bonus is that if its folded down I cant clutter it up. ive been able to make bread, pretzels, pizza pockets and the other night I even set the table for just the two of us and the baby. It’s amazing how good it feels to sit down at the table together without cleaning first.
I, too, was afraid of Legos…and Polly’s. Being overwhelmed is the root of my fear, I believe. But, it wasn’t so much the putting together or the playing with as much as the putting away. My kids are 17 and 19 and I’m still finding Polly shoes or purses in random places. Legos were meant to be stepped on, slid across the floor, or cat toys in my house. I cringe just thinking about either of these toys to this day. It heartens me to see that you had fun with the Legos. Maybe there is hope for me, too, at least for grand kids way in the future!
My boys, 11 and 4, both LOVE Legos, which is awful when you have a clutter problem. I hate those toys that you have to have all the little pieces to play with it. Get real!! We get them the boxes of Legos that are just miscellaneous pieces, so if a few get lost or sucked up in the vacuum, no big deal! They use their imaginations and I don’t stress about keeping track of all the little parts. They have one of those big plastic toolboxes that we won in a raffle, and all Legos, kinex, duplo, etc get dumped in there. Then they can dig through it and build their little hearts out!
My mom never had a fear of Legos, unless you count that as the one toy she trained me into getting back into the box.
She didn’t have a fear of playdoh either, but there was a plastic tablecloth in with the playdoh set and I had to stay there when playing with it.
I eventually figured out by the time my lego box was 3 gallons that putting a bedsheet down before dumping them out made it easier to scoop them back up instead of picking them out of the carpet.
Playdoh. That was the hard one for me. It required that I clean off my kitchen table and sweep the floor before AND after playing. We did it, but it was never more than once a month (probably a lot less) and took a lot of requests from them before I’d finally give in.
I am a AFOL(Adult Fan of Lego) here. The trick is to simply have a designated room in the house for Lego. Still working on the ideal way for sorting and storing all those little parts. I think a Lego table will be in our future. Girl Lego has to be the worst I fail to see the need for the Lego Friends to need hair bows, utensils, and butterflies to place for a dash of color. Still I love that my 4 year old boy and 9 year old girl can spend hours together with them.
Another AFOL slob here 🙂 To the point where my husband and I had a Lego themed wedding.
I love them, but I am starting to get frustrated that they are EVERYWHERE. We have so many.
The dream is to have a Lego room. One day.
MY second son also turned 7 in 2010 and was a lego fanatic. We’ve still got most of those legos but now it’s my 8 year-old third son who is obsessed with them (in a way that my second never was) Because we also have a 10 month-old baby, all the legos live in my bedroom. That’s the only way I can keep them under control and out of the baby’s mouth, because I cannot go to bed and let my husband get up and walk on legos in the middle of the night.
Also, Secondborn son bought ME a lego set for Christmas a couple years ago because he knows how much it always killed me to let him put the sets together and not do it myself.